Starting from Zero

Chapter 25

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Book 3, Chapter 25
Conclusion

    "Are you Charon?" Mom quicklypulled Rose to the side. "No worries dear, I"m Sairin"s mother and yourfuture mother-in-law. I"m not going to do anything harsh. I"m pretty open-minded you know.The only thing I need you to do is to take good care of my Sairin. Got it?"

    "Hey mom!" I pulled Rose back. "Is thatsupposed to be an introduction?"

    My father came too. "h.e.l.lo, I"m Sairin"s father. Youmay already know what our family looks like. Now I"m going to reveal somethingto you that may make you feel uncomfortable. This may sound embarra.s.sing for our first meeting butstill, I hope you can remember it."

    "Dad! Stop scaring her!"

    He just hinted me to keep silent. "Sairin ismy only child. In other words, the only inheritor of my business. Both DragonFate and Zhong Hua Company will fall under his name sooner or later. We have areserved emergency a.s.set too, 10% share of the EU Countertradea.s.sociation. No one else knows about this. The true value of these a.s.setsof my family, and what you can do with them, are beyond the comprehension ofany ordinary men. Let me tell you this: they will allow us to manipulate anentire country or even a region. And of course, any sane being will more orless get attracted by such a fortune. There will be all kinds of individuals that will try to usurp what we have. If you truly wish to stay with Sairin, youwill have to be prepared to withstand what will come with your decision."

    Rose looked at my father and didn"t say anything. Sheslightly nodded her head, then nuzzled into my arms, refusing to get out.

     "Son, youalso need to know this: Once you two get married, your life will change and youwill never be able to return to where you were. You will be center of thespotlight soon, anything you do will probably be revealed to the public by somereporters."

    "I understand!" I stopped my mother from adding anything further. "I know what will happen. But I also know I can"t leave Rose."

    "Then we have nothing more to say. I canarrange your wedding. Before you two are officially married, make sure you don"tfall out of the lines."

    "What lines?" Rose asked, with the look ofinnocence.

    "It"s, well... that, action." Father tried toexplain what he meant without actually mentioning that word. But Rose won"tunderstand, so he turned to me. "You know what I"m talking about right?"

    I nodded, blushing. Father added: "If you tworeally want it, do it in the game. You two are always together anyway."

"Wait, youcan do that in [Zero]?" I"m surprised.

    "You can. Anything that may happen in real life, canbe reproduced inside the game."

     I thought aboutit. Well doing that business in the game can be a good idea. The problem is I"mnot sure if my own body will have any reaction outside. It"ll be reallyembarra.s.sing if I...mess up my bed.

So I asked my father (whispering): "Um,will my body actually, ahem, if I...try it in the game?"

    Father laughed. "Don"t worry! No one would playour game if we can"t even solve that problem. Did your body dance around whenyou"re killing monsters?"

    "I think not."

"That"s it.To put it simple, our helmets are brain wave interceptors. Human movements andreactions are controlled by neural signals, the helmet will halt these signalsand forward them to the game instead, while keeping the signals from reachingother parts of your body. In short, you body "disconnects" with your brain onceyou"re in the game. Anything apart from those necessary to keep you alive, likebreathing and heart beat, will be jammed. Other sensations like hunger, arealso forwarded by the helmet to your brain. Or you will not feel a thing untilyou"re starved to death."

    "That sounds good!" I snickered.

    Mother dragged father away. It seems she can"t take itanymore. "Now don"t you spoil our son already, you old pervert. And you, Roseis such a good girl, don"t you do anything beyond the border! Alright it"slate now. To your beds!"

    Rose didn"t understand what we were talking about inthe whole process. She knew it"s something to do with her, but just couldn"tmake it out.

Not surprisingly,mother asked us to sleep in separate rooms. But that"s no problem. Rose, you"remine anyway! Hahahaha!

"Ow!" Someone knocked hard on my head.

"Sleep already. Why are you laughing like an idiot?"

Oh come on mom.

————————————————————————————————

It took some effort to get into sleep, which didn"t lastlong. c.r.a.p. One night, and now I got panda eyes.

"Son! We"ll leave now. Youtake Rose to the college." Mother showed up in front of my bedroom.

"Got it!"

When they"veleft, I entered Rose"s room. She still asleep. The large blanket is in the formof a tent. She covered her entire body so I can"t see her face.

I carefullyflipped it open.

"Umff--" I pinched my nose. That was close! I felt bloodcoming out of my nose! I never noticed that Rose got such a slim figure. Lookslike that wizard armor I bought her was a terrible choice.

I can see throughthose half-transparent silk pajamas she"s wearing. She looks like an angel withall the sunlight! She must have modified her looks towards the opposite endwhen creating her character.

I feel faint looking at her exposed pink corsage. Didmother do this on purpose? I think this is the same set-up my mother wore whenshe was trying to "seduce" my dad. I"m still a functional male beingon the biological level. Now I"m trying very hard to control myself! Oh well. Itwill happen some time or other. Here"s my chance, I"ll just make her...mine!

I nearly tore my pajamas off. Any normal guy wouldbecome a predator under such a circ.u.mstance. But before I can make my move--

"Ziri... Help me, I don"t want to go to j.a.pan!" A drop of tear sliddown from her cheek. And I instantly suppressed my primal urge. My desiredisappeared as fast as it came.

I gently wiped her tears off, kissed her on theforehead and ran back to my room to get dressed.

What I didn"t know is thatRose opened her eyes when I left.

"Good, he still have conscience! Theyreally saw me like some innocent girl? My granny was right. Tears beat all men, especiallya man in love." Her naughty expression turned soft. "Don"t worry Ziri,I will be yours. Just, give me some time to prepare."

She touched whereshe was kissed, smiling.

Oh the other hand, I"m still in my own room cursingmyself. What kind of beast am I?? Did I actually plan to do that?

I woke up Rose (whois pretending to be asleep), we decided to take a tour around the shoppingcenter. Neither of us really care about our college courses. Rose has alreadyfinished hers thanks to her extraordinary memory, while I just came here to getmy papers. What they taught doesn"t matter.

For some reason Rose decided to holdmy hand and then snuggle into my side along the way. It"s really a pity thatall we received from the pa.s.sers-by are weird looks as if they just saw somelesbians. One of the young men even complained loudly: "Such beautifulgirls. What a pity."

Rose made it even worse by intentionally shouting out loud:"Honey! Where are we going to play today?"

This caused thecomplaining young man to b.u.mp head-on into a lamp post. That must hurt a lot, causeit sounded like someone just knocked at an ancient bell.

Mother"s mansion is not far from the downtowns ("thisis convenient!"). We soon reached our destination. She stopped for amoment in front of Sky Crown building, then dragged me away.

"You"re notgoing in? This is the most luxurious place for shopping in the city you know. Don"twomen like to buy clothes?"

    Rose just smiled. "You know how my family lookedlike. If not for the tuition-free offer I got, they would never allow me to goto college. Even that woman won"t dare to shop at such a place."

    I looked at Rose straight in the eyes. "ListenRose, remember, you are not that poor girl anymore. Anything you will need fromnow on is what will make you feel happy, don"t worry about anything else. Nowfollow me, I was planning to dress you like the top lady in the world!"

    Rose complied after some minor protests. No femalebeing is able to resist the urge to shop for free. She"s not an exception.

But the moment Iread the shopping tour guide at the entrance, I felt like going mad. Stores formen"s clothes end at second floor, while those for women attires start off from3rd floor, all the way to the 30th!

The situation changed faster than Iexpected--now Rose is the one leading. We first entered an ordinary store. Roseis already admiring everything she sees but none of the models met my standard.I just asked her to go straight to the 20th floor. That"s where the good stuffwill be.

I managed to push Rose through all the displays, all ofwhich would attract her for quite a while. Start from the 20th floor there willonly be special-grade shops which only sell famous brands or customizingservices. Of course Rose never saw something like these with her own eyes.

Ipushed her into a place called "The Snow Specialties". I don"t knowmuch about women"s dress but I remember my mother likes to wear this brand.What she likes must be the right choices.

    A guide quickly noticed us. "Welcome! What do youneed today, ladies?"

    Oh c.r.a.p. Not another one! Forget it. I don"t want toexplain anymore.

    Rose picked up a random dress and checked the price tag. Shejust gasped when seeing those zeros on it.

"Um, Sairin?"

    I know what she"s going to ask. "My girlfriend here wants something pretty, from eveningdress to casuals, everything she may need. I don"t know how to pick, could youhelp her?"

    The guide lady looked at us in surprise, obviouslybecause of that "girlfriend" part. But she soon recovered and tookRose away to try things on. A rich customer is always welcomed.

     Rose isoverjoyed while trying different outfits that would only appear in her wildestdreams. She also tried to put on different personas to go with them--a cute little child, a gorgeous madam, the most seductive woman... Even the other workers andcustomers in the store stopped what they are doing and stared at her.

We stayed foralmost an hour, after which Rose has picked out a small pile of clothes. Inoticed the guide lady is frowning. She must be worrying that we are justtrying things out without actually buying them.

I picked another standardgentlewomen wear, asked Rose to put it on and tossed what Rose didn"t want overto the guide. "Take this away. And, pack up everything we have tried, exceptthe one she"s wearing. Send them to this address."

I gave her my ID card (whichis bound to my bank account). The frown on her face instantly turned upside down.Actually that smile looks as if its going to split her head. Of course, she"sgonna receive one h.e.l.l of a bonus today.

Don"t worry, there won"t be such chapters very often in the future. This is not one of those harem novels anyway.

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